Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf “Muffins”

You know what seems to be all the rage in restaurants these days? Fusion, or the combining of several separate cuisines into one dish/restaurant concept. This is kind of like that, but far less fancy because mine involves meatloaf. It’s more like diner-fusion than an elegant and eclectic mix of Japanese, Brazilian and Parisian fare (or whatever). I’m good with that. Meatloaf and Chicken Parmesan are two of my favorite comfort foods, and I loved the idea of combining them. The finished product kind of reminded me of a chicken version of meatballs (which are one of my favorite foods of all time – I LOVE meatballs), so I loved them. Of course I also followed my instinct to portion them into muffin tins, and as always it made for added convenience, presentation, portion control, and in this case – a shorter cooking time! These “muffins make great leftovers and are freezer and kid-friendly. Plus, you get to transform your kitchen into the next great Italian-American fusion restaurant! Look at you, being all hip and fancy.

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Yield:12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs raw ground chicken breast (if you have trouble finding ground chicken that is breast meat only, do what I do and throw the same weight of boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the food processor and run until ground)

1 large egg

1 egg whites

6 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs

¾ teaspoon dried basil

¾ teaspoon dried thyme

¾ teaspoon oregano

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ a small onion, chopped small or grated

¾ teaspoon salt

1/3 teaspoon black pepper

¾ cup Parmesan cheese

¾ cup pasta sauce

¾ cup 2% reduced fat shredded Mozzarella cheese

Optional: dried parsley, oregano or basil for garnish

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Lightly mist a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, egg whites, breadcrumbs, basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese and lightly mix together. Do not over handle.

Form the meat mixture evenly into the 12 cups of your prepared muffin tin. Spread the pasta sauce evenly over the tops of each muffin. Bake for 20 minutes and remove from the oven. Top each muffin with about a tablespoon of shredded cheese and then return to the oven for 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melted. Garnish if desired.

Weight Watchers SmartPoints:4 per muffin (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)

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170 Responses to “Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf “Muffins””

Emily: I saw your “teaser” about this on facebook and I am excited to try it this weekend. My friend at work and I often share your muffin meals or your wonton cups. Thanks for all your portion controlled meals. I also portion control my pasta into 1/2 cup servings so this would be Great with a side salad.

Thanks, Nancy! I’m so glad you two are fans :). Hope you love this one!

Anonymous replied: — September 1st, 2012 @ 2:05 pm

Emily: I made these this morning and they came out wonderful! I did grind up chicken breast as you suggested since I had on hand and it worked like a charm! Thank you for another great healthy version of comfort food!

Nancy

Anonymous replied: — September 1st, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

Next time I may try in a mini pan. Would make a great 2 bite appetizer. Nancy

I ate mine with a mixed green salad with Simple Dressed Balsamic on it and I thought it was an awesome pairing. You could always serve it with pasta if you’d like as well, or maybe zucchini or asparagus with parmesan?

Oh YUM! Emily …you’ve done it again! I can hardly wait to try these. I’ve had a rough summer (lots of celebrating & BBQ’s happening) …time for me to get back on track, and these will do the trick. Thanks!

It’s 8am and I want this for breakfast!!! Guess I’ll have to wait until dinner! My husband and I use myfitnesspal to log our food, so a HUGE thank you for including the nutrtional info on your meals–it helps out a lot!

I have frozen them fully cooked, cheese and all. I thawed them in the fridge before reheating and put them in the oven on a baking sheet to reheat. It took about 10 mins for them to heat through and they were delicious!

I made these last night for dinner and they were great! Instead of chicken I used turkey. And to the anonymous person who asked about breadcrumbs.. I used the WW zero point Sara Lee 45 and delightful bread. I toasted 2 pieces and then put it in my blender. Turned out great!

OMGOSH, thank you, thank you! This is a fabulous idea. I just started my diet and really need some tips. I just had my 7th baby and am having a harder time losing the weight. I need to learn about portion control and this makes it sooo simple. 😀

I didn’t freeze them, but you certainly could. I’d probably just put them back in the oven until they were heated through, or you could definitely try microwaving them. I refrigerated my leftovers and microwaved them and they were delicious!

These are GREAT!! My parents came over for dinner tonight and I made these for the first time. They came out so nicely! My stepmom said “Wow! Nice job! This recipe is definitely a keeper!” I served them with green beans and a fresh salad! Bon appetit!

Just found your site and boy am I glad I did! I started WW like 6 weeks ago and was getting bored with the same old recipes. Also I live in a remote First Nations community in Northern Canada and can only get the most common ingrediants. It’s so nice that most of your recipes use things I can actually get!!! This was the first one I tired and it was delish! Can’t wait to try more.

I made these tonight and I can not believe how good they were!!! Even my 3 and 6 yo girls LOVED them! I made them with a side of pasta and a salad. My girls are pasta fanatics…and tonight they ate their “muffin” and left all the pasta! I really think you have cracked them!!!! THANK YOU!

Hey Emily!! I love all your recipes, thank you for being so great! I especially love the wonton wrapper cupcakes… so I have a recipe request for chicken parm in wonton wrappers! maybe using layers of short-cuts style chicken breast (grilled kind) and some sauce and cheese? I’m not a fan of ground meat so I think these would really cure the craving!! thanks again.. I look forward to more great recipes!

Hey Emily, I just tried the Chicken Parm Meatloaf Muffins. They were out of this world. My 15 year old daughter, who usually hates everything that I cook, could not stop eating them last night. Thanks for making me feel like a rock star at dinner!!!

This is the 1st recipe I’ve made from your site, really great! I paired mine with roasted garlic Brussel sprouts-Very delightful! They’d be great pressed into patty on a bun, also, but this was a nice twist 🙂 Thanks!

Thanks for the great recipes Emily! I made these for our family the other night- so delicious! I was full after two and love the portion control here. The kids gobbled them up! Great with a side of whole grain pasta and a huge salad!

Thank you so much. I have a super picky eater and I just made these and she came back for seconds. This almost never happens. So easy to make. I even ground my own chicken. Thanks for the tips and great recipe.

Hey Emily! I recently found your blog and I’ve been making a ton of your recipes!! The recipes are always good and I never feel like I’m eating “diet” food. I made these chicken parmesan cupcakes tonight. My husband and I LOVED them! He even said to me “We’ve been eating really good stuff lately”! Thank you! ~Shannon

This was my first ever “muffin” and it was AMAZING! Two of them paired with a large salad was more than filling. I did use ground turkey instead, but was still delicious. Thank goodness for your site or WW would not have this much variety for me!

Do you think this would work in a regular meatloaf pan? I’m very new to both WW and Cooking (shameful, I know) but want to start cooking and just don’t know a lot about subsitutions, etc. Any help is greatly appreciated! Can I make this in a meatloaf form instead of muffin?

This recipe and your website have inspired me to start creating some new recipes. I made these last night and my wife and I LOVED them! I think that I am going to start making more different types of main course muffins because it is perfect for portion size. I think that I am going to work on a greek cupcake meatloaf and a spanish cupcake meatloaf this week.

These were so good! I could only find ground turkey breast, so I used that instead … really yummy. We had two of them for dinner with a tossed salad and it was quite filling. My toddler loved them too! I froze the rest for later (I don’t think that will be a problem, Krista, have frozen meatballs before). Thanks for sharing this recipe!

I made these tonight and the whole family loved them!!! Even my two kids who never ever like the same thing both loved them. To quote my son “Wow!” and “MMMMM I love them!!!” and even had thirds (he never does that). I think we have a keeper. I’ve had trouble finding weight watchers recipes that everyone likes. I’ve bookmarked your site. I also love the simplicity of your recipes too. I use some SkinnyTaste ones but they are SO labor intensive (30-40 minutes prep)and always use 3-4 pots and then the baking dish. I can’t wait to try more from your site! 🙂

I have made these 3 times in the last month. They freeze well too! I brought 2 of them for lunch today, sliced them and put them on a arnolds whole wheat sandwich thin. I never thought I would like ground chicken, but its my new favorite instead of beef! So much sweeter. The recipe is awesome.

I made these the other day and they are amazing! I have cooked about ten of your recipes since last week and they were all wonderful, my boyfriend is wondering if all are meals are going to come in the form of muffins from now on haha. I have the mexican pulled pork in the crock now and cant wait for dinner! Keep the recipes coming, I follow WW points so these recipes are great!

I made these last night and they were delicious! I served them with a broccoli slaw with balsamic, for a tasty low-carb version of spaghetti and meatballs. Next time, I will mix a cup of broccoli slaw or grated carrots in with the meatball mixture, and I will serve them w/ extra marinara sauce for dipping.

Found this thru Pinterest, it sounds awesome! I’m sure this will end up on my regular dinner rotation. I’ll be substituting almond meal for the breadcrumbs – it works very well in every recipe I’ve done this for. I’m avoiding wheat and also use almond meal in place of flour when baking.

Very good starter recipe. My wife and I enjoyed them but found them a bit bland. Want to add a bit more flavor without the points…next time, I will saute the onion and garlic and maybe some bell pepper. Will also add more seasonings to make different kinds (ie, cayenne/chili/cumin for Mexican themed; herbs de provence, savory, etc for Italian). Overall, a VERY good recipe…thanks for sharing!

These are absolutely delicious! SO GOOD that i’m having trouble believing they are diet friendly. I’ll be making many many more of these. I omitted the breadcrumbs but they still turned out fabulous. Yummy!!!!!!!!!!

I never comment on things like this, but I just had to as these are SO DELICIOUS! I used half ground sirloin, and half ground turkey, which upped the points slightly. Also subbed romano for parm, as that is what we had. And my husband–who finished making them as the baby was freaking out–mixed the tomato sauce in with the meat instead of putting it on top. They turned out so rich that I think if I do it again with the slightly fattier meat I will leave off the mozzarella – I don’t think I would miss it at all. Now I just have to avoid eating a third one.

Thanks for this post Emily! These were really good! I’ve been making the old WW beef and stovetop stuffing mix meatloaf muffins for years (everyone still loves them) so it was fun to mix it up with this recipe. I usually make a huge batch of meatloaf muffins and freeze them. A minute or 2 in the microwave and dinner is ready on a crazy, there’s nothing in the house kind of night. I didn’t make enough to freeze of these this first time, but I’m sure I will next time (and there will be a next time)!

Anonymous replied: — October 31st, 2013 @ 5:00 pm

Oh and also, my food processer didn’t much like serving as a meat grinder and I’m worried about killing the motor if I try it again. I googled “where can I find ground chicken” and the best answer I found was that (if they don’t have it already) the meat department at your grocer will grind it for you if you ask! Just tell them how many pounds you need. One less tool to use/clean too to make this easy dish!

Just pulled my millionth pan of these muffins out of the oven. (Ok, slight exaggeration) I make them with either the suggested ground chicken OR 93% or 99% ground turkey…whatever’s on sale. This recipe has literally been a life changer…meatballs had been out of my life for years due to gallstones…and when you think that two of my very favorite foods are spaghetti and meatballs, and meatball parm sandwiches, well, it was so hard for me-to say nothing of the fact that my beef meatballs were the best EVER. I have fooled quite a few people that couldn’t believe they weren’t beef when I made them with the turkey….I cant thank you enough. I cut these in quarters or halves and drop them into my homemade sauce and I’m in heaven. Meatballs are back, baby!

I have actually made these twice before, as is, and they are amazing!!!! What a great recipe. I am making them again for dinner tonight. What I love about them is that they reheat so well, I can eat them for more than one meal. It’s nice not to have to cook the second night! Thanks for the great recipe!

We splurged this weekend and bought a meat grinder attachment for our Kitchen-Aide stand mixer. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale last week, so we stocked up! Ground some chicken this evening and made these tasty tidbits – definitely a winner!! We served them with a small side Caesar salad – perfect meal! The only alteration I made was using the tip suggested earlier in the comments about making your own breadcrumbs out of “light” bread – this cut down on the carbs a bit more for those who are counting.

Huge success in our house! Buffalo chicken meatballs in the slow cooker tomorrow! Thanks for another home run, Emily!!

I had gastric sleeve a year and a half ago and I love making these! I make a pan and freeze half and eat the rest during the week. They are the PERFECT size and oh so delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!

These are delicious. The second time around I added finely diced and sauté mushrooms and spinach (cooled) to the meat mixture. It helped keep everything moist and added a nutritional boost without adding much as far as calories or carbs. It’s a great way to sneak veggies in for picky eaters. Especially the mushrooms since they aren’t visible 🙂

Quick question: if I wanted to make these for someone, and put them in the freezer, at what point would you suggest I freeze? I would like as little work as possible to be done on the other person’s part. Thanks in advance!